Report of the Polish Commissioner for Human Rights on the Activities of the National Mechanism for the Prevention ... recommendations of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT), recommendations of the UN Committee Against Torture (CAT) and the case law of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. In this regard, Poland failed to implement the CPT recommendation formulated during its first visit to Poland in 1996, which called on the Polish authorities to increase the standard of living space from the existing 3 m2 to 4 m² (the recommendation was consistently repeated by the Committee on the occasions of its subsequent visits to Poland). As the CPT pointed out, the Polish authorities should revise, as soon as possible, the standard of living space per prisoner, that is determined in the country’s relevant legislation, so as to ensure that in every penitentiary establishment the living space per prisoner is at least 4 m² in multi-occupancy cells and at least 6 m² in singleperson cells, not including the cell’s sanitary areas22. Notably, in 2015 the CPT issued a report entitled Living space per prisoner in prison establishments23, relating to the living space standard applicable to prisoners. The report clearly states that as regards living conditions, the minimum living space standard for persons deprived of their liberty is 4 m2. The Constitutional Tribunal also pointed out that the CPT recommendations set out the standard to be followed by the member states of the Council of Europe. The failure to comply with the standard constitutes a violation of Article 3 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, and of Article 31(3) of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland24. The CAT also expressed its position on the aforementioned minimum standard in Poland. When considering Poland’s 5th and 6th periodic reports on the implementation of the Convention against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment25 (hereinafter referred to as the Convention against torture) it pointed out that the Polish standard of 22 Cf. Article 42 of the CPT’s report on the visit to Poland in 2013. The CPT representatives’ visits to Poland took place on the following dates: 30.06.1996; 12.07.1996; 8.05.2000; 19.05.2000; 4.10.2004; 15.10.2004; 26.11.2009; 8.12.2009; 05.06.2013 and 17.06.2013. All the reports on the visits and the related replies of the Polish government were made available to the general public (at the request of the Polish authorities) and are available on the CPT website http://www.cpt.coe.int 23 Cf. The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT): Living space per prisoner in prison establishments: CPT standards; Strasbourg, 15 December 2015; CPT/Inf (2015) 44. 24 Cf. the reasoning of the Constitutional Tribunal’s judgment of 26 May 2008, ref. no. SK 25/07, p. 8. 25 Dz. U. of 1989, no. 63, item 378. 22